NRA

Lxecutlve vlce Presldent wayne LaPlerre and Chrls Cox, Lxecutlve

Dlrector of the NPA |nstltute for Leglslatlve Actlon, along wlth
NPA Presldent Davld Keene, recently met wlth Senator Orrln
a promlnent pro-gun leader slnce hls electlon ln l976. As chalrman of the Senate 1udlclary Subcom-
mlttee on the Constltutlon, Senator Hatch was the author of the semlnal l982 commlttee report
entltled "The Plght to Keep and 8ear Arms," one of the many works that earned hlm the tltle
"Mr. Constltutlon" ln the Senate.
That report stated, "The concluslon ls thus lnescapable that the hlstory, concept and wordlng of the
Second Amendment... lndlcates that what ls protected ls an lndlvldual rlght of a prlvate cltlzen to own
A Visiì
IaPicrrc |t's great to see you, Senator, and thanks
for havlng us ln to vlslt wlth you. | can't count the
number of tlmes we've met on varlous lssues over the
years. ¥our actlve lnvolvement ln protectlng Second
Amendment rlghts llterally goes back decades.
Scn. Hatch well, |'ve been proud to be part of thls
lssues, the vast ma[orlty support the rlght to keep and
bear arms. Of course, that hasn't stopped people from
trylng to erode thls rlght÷or take lt away altogether.
IaPicrrc | remember when the Senate brought the
McClure-volkmer Plrearms Owners' Protectlon Act to
-
gether. Tell us some of the hlgh polnts of that process.
Scn. Hatch Thls may sound cllche but, for me, the
hlgh polnt was standlng behlnd Presldent Peagan as
NRA Leaders Sit Down with the Senate's ºMr. Constitutionº
with Scnaìoi
Oiiin Haìtl
DlClSlCN 2ôT2
Nkk-||k lxecct|ºe 0|recter Chr|s W. Cex, Nkk |res|6eat 0aº|6 Keeae
aa6 Nkk lV| Wa¡ae |a||erre (|. te r.) met w|th !ea. 0rr|a katch
(ceater, r|qht) te cemmea6 h|s ea6cr|aq werk te preserºe the
!ecea6 kmea6meat aa6 te 6|sccss the ccrreat threats aqa|ast |t.
he slgned the blll lnto law. |t really was [ust a culmlnatlon
of years of hard work on the part of so many people. we
spent the better part of the l980s worklng to pass that
blll lnto law.
debate for the Pepubllcans ln the Senate when the blll
at our dlsposal to get lt through. 8ut, from the begln-
nlng, we knew that we were dolng the rlght thlng and
that we had a Presldent who would slgn the blll lf we
could [ust pass lt.
IaPicrrc | remember that Congressman Peter Podlno
from New 1ersey called the blll "dead on arrlval." Do you
remember what you sald ln response!
Scn. Hatch | don't remember exactly. | do remem-
ber that Podlno÷who was chalrman of the House
1udlclary Commlttee÷hated the blll. He had no lnten-
tlon of lettlng lt move. And, frankly, wlth the Democrats
ln charge of the House, he was probably on pretty safe
ground.
|n the end, lt was one of [ust a handful of bllls ln hls-
tory that were passed ln the House through a dlscharge
petltlon. So, they were able to get lt out of the com-
mlttee÷and out of Podlno's [urlsdlctlon÷wlthout the
consent of the chalrman. |n the end, some people were
pretty furlous about lt. 8ut, llke | sald, when the vast
ma[orlty of the Amerlcan people support somethlng, lt's
hard for anyone to stand ln the way.
IaPicrrc Lven before that, Senator, you had lald the
groundwork for both the leglslatlve and [udlclal reforms
by authorlng the l982 Senate subcommlttee report, "The
Plght to Keep and 8ear Arms." what was your goal when
you set out to wrlte that report!
Scn. Hatch There were really two goals, | suppose.
the Second Amendment and the rlght to bear arms. Por
decades÷maybe even longer÷people had trled to
pretend that the Second Amendment was somehow
amblguous, that the lntent of the Pramers, when lt comes
to thls one amendment, was slmply unknowable. Of
course, lt should be noted that most of the people mak-
lng thls argument tended to belleve that the meanlng of
the entlre Constltutlon changes over tlme. 8ut, wlth the
Second Amendment, they'd been more than wllllng to
slmply read lt out of the Constltutlon entlrely.
Our second goal wlth the report was to change the
dlalogue on gun rlghts. |nstead of argulng how far the
government could go to keep people from buylng guns,
we wanted to get people thlnklng about dolng more to
facllltate lawful, reasonable gun ownershlp. | thlnk we
were successful on that count as well, though lt took a
number of years for the debate to be where lt ls now.
IaPicrrc Of course, we had no ldea of the challenges
we were golng to face ln the l990s. Some folks have
forgotten that our current vlce Presldent 1oe 8lden led a
decade-long assault on our rlghts ln the Senate 1udlclary
Commlttee. And you were hls chlef opponent on the
commlttee.
Scn. Hatch That's exactly what | mean by the chang-
lng nature of thls debate. Lven lnto the l990s, lt was
fashlonable for Democrats to demonlze guns and gun
owners on all sldes. Guns became a scapegoat÷and, by
extenslon, those of us who supported the rlghts of gun
owners were also scapegoats.
1oe 8lden was rlght there ln the mlddle of lt. 8ut we
we were fortunate to have a ma[orlty of Amerlcan voters
who supported our posltlon. |f the ma[orlty had agreed
wlth 1oe 8lden and Presldent Cllnton, who knows how
far they could have gone!
Cox Senator, you have a long and dlstlngulshed hls-
tory on the Second Amendment to be sure. 8ut | want
our members to know we count on your help today as
much as we dld ln the past. ¥ou recently helped lead the
charge agalnst both of the presldent's Supreme Court
nomlnees, Sonla Sotomayor and Llena Kagan.
Scn. Hatch
because | belleve the Presldent ls owed some level of
deference from the Senate on Supreme Court nomlna-
tlons. 8ut, ln the end, they were both [ust too far out of
the malnstream for me to support, partlcularly when lt
came to gun rlghts.
8oth of these [ustlces came wlth a record of hostll-
lty toward the rlghts of gun owners. And, at the end
preserve the rlght to bear arms ls the Supreme Court.
that she belleved the Second Amendment protected
an lndlvldual rlght to bear arms. ¥et, ln one of her
earllest declslons on the Court, she voted preclsely the
A Visiì
with Scnaìoi
Oiiin Haìtl
DlClSlCN 2ôT2
opposlte way. 1ustlce Kagan gave slmllar testlmony
any doubt that she and 1ustlce Sotomayor are ln the
same camp when lt comes to the rlghts of gun owners.
That's why | had to oppose them both.
Cox And of course our members know that one of the
reasons we have to defeat 8arack Obama ln 20l2 ls to
prevent hlm from havlng the opportunlty to name more
antl-gun [ustlces. Plght now, we're [ust one vote away
from havlng our recent Second Amendment vlctorles
overturned.
Scn. Hatch That's exactly the polnt. Thls admlnls-
tratlon knows that lt can't get much of what lt wants
through Congress. 8ut, | thlnk Presldent Obama has a
more long-term vlew when lt comes to thlngs llke gun
control. |n the end, a second Obama term means more
Obama nomlnees on the Court. | don't know how any-
one who supports the Second Amendment÷and par-
tlcularly the vlews of the Second Amendment outllned
by the Court ln lts recent declslons÷can want to glve
Cox ¥ou recently [olned wlth 57 of your Senate col-
leagues ln slgnlng a letter to the presldent and secretary
of state, warnlng them agalnst supportlng the Unlted
Natlons Arms Trade Treaty lf lt contalns any restrlctlons
on our Second Amendment rlghts. And | thlnk lt's no
colncldence that 8arack Obama told Sarah 8rady he was
worklng on gun control "under the radar," accordlng to
recent press reports.
Scn. Hatch Tlme and tlme agaln, we've seen a
wllllngness on the part of thls admlnlstratlon to pass vla
regulatlon or executlve order thlngs that Congress would
slmply never agree to do. Lucklly enough, when lt comes
to treatles llke the one you mentloned, Congress can
stand ln the way. That's why our letter was lmportant÷
we had to send a message to the Presldent that, when
lt comes to gun rlghts, thls klnd of "under the radar"
Cox we have another controversy brewlng wlth the
Lxploslves (8ATPL) to lmpose reportlng and reglstratlon
of long gun purchases ln border states. what's your opln-
lon on that!
Scn. Hatch |t's very problematlc and | questlon lts
rellance on such an expanslve readlng of the law. |t ls
certalnly foreseeable that the Admlnlstratlon would look
to expand thls requlrement beyond the lnltlal border
states.
Cox Of course, we see lt as a smokescreen from the
congresslonal lnvestlgatlons lnto the dlsastrous 8ATPL
"Past and Purlous" gunrunnlng scandal. where do you
thlnk those lnvestlgatlons wlll lead!
Scn. Hatch -
gress ls stlll waltlng on numerous documents that have
been subpoenaed. The hlghest personnel of the Depart-
ment of 1ustlce should have been aware of a program of
thls magnltude and controversy and lf these lndlvlduals
weren't aware they should have been. |t's a problem
elther way.
Cox way back before thls all blew up, Mexlcan Presl-
dent Pellpe Calderon came to Congress and crltlclzed our
gun laws. | recall that you had a strong response for hlm.
Scn. Hatch ¥es, | dld. | dld not appreclate a forelgn
head of state comlng to our natlon and crltlclzlng the
preferences of lts cltlzenry. | felt hls comments were
lnapproprlate, and many of my Congresslonal colleagues
echoed my crltlclsms of hls comments.
Cox Thank you for your support on all of these key lssues,
Senator. | belleve 20l2 ls golng to be an lnterestlng year
ln the Senate on Second Amendment lssues and we look
forward to worklng wlth you on them.
Scn. Hatch Thank you for all you do. Thls ls a tough